You Too U2

Dec. 1, 2004

U2 are all over the place this month - in New York City last week to tape a Saturday Night Live appearance, the band also made an appearance right in Midtown Manhattan, where they performed on the back of a flatbed truck that drove right down Broadway; the band later performed a free concert next to the East River in Brooklyn for thousands of very surprised fans. Footage from the psuedo-impromptu show will reportedly be aired on MTV on December 8, and the new U2 album, How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, is out this week, available on several editions, including standard CD, vinyl, and two special edition CDs that include a DVD of U2 in the studio. The Irish band is set to kick off their world tour on March 1 in Florida in support of their aforementioned album - the band is slated for around three dozen shows in the U.S. before heading overseas to Europe, Japan and Australia; Snow Patrol and Scissor Sisters have reportedly been tapped as potential opening acts...
It’s that time of year again - time for the annual radio station holiday concerts, taking place in major cities across the country - and this year is no exception. The famed KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas shows are set for December 11 and 12, with the 11th featuring Interpol, The Shins, Modest Mouse, Snow Patrol, The Killers, Keane, and The Music, and the 12th showcasing Good Charlotte, Incubus, My Chemical Romance, Velvet Revolver, Sum 41, and Green Day. Both shows will be held at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles...
Peter Gabriel, whose last album, Up, hit stores back in 2002, is prepping to release Play, a DVD collection of his video work over the past (gulp!) 25 years. Included in the collection will be his groundbreaking clip for “Sledgehammer,” along with additional clips for older tunes like “Solsbury Hill” (which will be heard in the upcoming Topher Grace/Scarlett Johanssen movie In Good Company), “Games Without Frontiers,” “Washing of the Water” and, of course, “In Your Eyes,” best known for its inclusion in the “boombox” scene in the John Cusack movie Say Anything. Gabriel’s previously unreleased first video, for “Modern Love,” will also be included, as will a brand-new video for the tune “Father, Son,” which was directed by Gabriel’s daughter Anna and which stars Gabriel himself along with his three-year-old son and his 92-year old father. With everything remixed in 5.1 surround sound by Gabriel and producer Daniel Lanois, the set is...ur... set to hit stores on November 24...
And Phantom Planet are getting ready to release a DVD of their own - heading to stores on December 14, PP’s Chicago, Chicagogoing, Chicagogone will feature over three hours of play time, including live performances of 16 songs caught at a Phantom Planet show at Schuba’s Tavern in Chicago and bonus footage of the band playing at Japan’s Summer Sonic Festival. Various video clips, photos, and whatnot from the band are also included - and, on a side note, Phantom Planet are also contributing an original track to the soundtrack for the new videogame “Stubbs The Zombie”...

MINI BUZZ:
Gwen Stefani, Green Day, and Nelly are among the confirmed performers for the Billboard Music Awards, set to air December 8 on FOX TV; also scheduled to appear are Duran Duran, Nick Lachey, Macy Gray, Kelly Osbourne and lip-syncer-extraordinaire Ashlee Simpson...
Speaking of Green Day, they’re set to tour Australia in March with Simple Plan along as opening act...
Paul McCartney has been tapped to headline the Super Bowl halftime show on February 6; (guess they wanted a lower risk of “wardrobe malfunctions”)...
Detroit’s own White Stripes will drop their live DVD, Under Blackpool Lights, on December 7; theatre screenings of the set will hit the big screen in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Livonia, Michigan, among other cities, on December 9, with all screenings starting at 7 pm...
R.E.M. will be joined on their 2005 tour dates by a variety of opening acts, including The Thrills, Joseph Arthur, Brainstorm, and Bright Eyes; the tour starts in Lisbon on January 7...
And making their way to a CD store near you are this week’s new releases... ON CD: Gwen Stefani’s Love, Angel, Music, Baby... U2’s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb... Evanescence’s Anywhere But Home... Kelly Clarkson’s Breakaway... Placebo’s Once More With Feeling... and Rufus Wainwright’s Want Two... ON DVD: Live Aid The DVD... The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus... A Perfect Circle’s Amotion... and The Grateful Dead Movie... and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.

Questions, comments, rants, raves about your fave artists or this column? Send ‘em to Kristi at expressmodernrock@hotmail.com!